Ceremonial Meeting dedicated to the 11th anniversary of the RA Special Investigation Service took place

2018-11-28

Ceremonial Meeting dedicated to the 11th anniversary of the RA Special Investigation Service took place today. The Meeting was attended by Mr. Ararat Mirzoyan, the First Vice- Prime Minister of RA, Mr. Artur Davtyan, the RA Prosecutor General, Mr. Artur Vanetsyan, the Head of RA National Security Service, Mr. Valeriy Osipyan, the Head of RA Police, Mr. Hayk Grigoryan, the Chairman of the RA Investigation Committee and other high ranking officials.

Mr. A. Mirzoyan, the First Vice- Prime Minister of RA congratulated the officers of the RA Special Investigation Service and conveyed the congratulatory message of Mr. Nikol Pashinyan, the RA Prime Minister on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the structure: “As an independent body, not bound by institutional interest the Special Investigation Service must practice legitimacy on the basis of the principles of legal equality today more than ever, by assuring rights and legal interests of people.

I want to emphasize the responsible role of the Special Investigation Service, which is very important for our country. Criminal cases currently being investigated in the Service are in the spotlight of the public, and this requires the investigators being more responsive to the work and overreaching.

We highly appreciate the ongoing efforts aimed at solving crimes on criminal cases initiated with regard to incidents taken place on March 1, 2008; unique disclosures following ineffective investigations which lasted around a decade, as well as implementation of measures, aimed at return of amounts stolen from the Republic of Armenia and the citizens, as a result of corruptive offences.

I emphasize periodical provision by the Service of information on cases that cause great interest for the public, which is the most important guarantee of implementation of public control over investigation of the criminal cases.

I am sure, thanks to your professional practice, knowledge and devotion the RA Special Investigation Service will perform with honors its mission of investigation body, which conforms with international standards; its activities will significantly raise the confidence of the public towards the law enforcement authorities,” - the message says.

Having referred to the results achieved by the Service recently, Mr. Sasun Khachatryan, the head of the RA Special Investigation Service noted in his speech that the officers of the structure deeply understand the mission they perform ofocially, especially over this transition period, which is very important for the country: “In order to understand the real volume of works and achieved results I would like to indicate some figures. Thus, during the last 6 months more than 1000 persons have been interviewed on the incidents taken place on March 1; more than 40 searches have been conducted. The officers of the Service made around 85 confiscations from citizens and different state institutions, 23 expert examinations were appointed, including hard, complex expertise. 146 items of firearms and a huge number of ammunition were presented for expertise. We can have the real picture of the huge volume of works performed by the investigators on a single criminal case, if in line with this we consider participation of the investigators on court sessions on complaints investigated in the scope of judicial supervision, participations on courts sessions held with regard to the petitions filed by investigators, the number of which exceeds one hundred, solution of hundreds of applications and motions,” – S. Khachatryan said.

According to the Head of the Service the effect on so called “Zibiliks” case was also unique. As S. Khachatryan said, it was for the first time, when the chain of systematic election related frauds was justified during the preliminary investigation. In June – September 2018, more than 200 persons were interviewed, a number of investigative and procedural actions were conducted.

With regard to the other cases investigated in the proceeding of the Service, S. Khachatryan pointed out criminal case on Manvel Grigoryan, on which a huge work was carried out: “As a result of investigative activities conducted with regard to 200 real property title certificates registered on the names of different physical persons and organizations confiscated from the private house of Manvel Grigoryan it was found that the significant part of the mentioned real properties was acquired with the violations of law, and with this regard I addressed a letter to the Minister of RA Territorial Administration and Development on commencing the process of return of 40 real properties to the community. The legitimacy of acquisition of the remaining properties is being checked.

Bank accounts of 4 accused persons have been blocked, 12 expertise were appointed, a part of which is complex. International legal requests were sent to 15 countries. Financial economic and tax monitoring were appointed in 7 companies, according to the preliminary results of which the volume of the financial fraud is around 1 billion AMD, and the criminally prosecuted persons expressed their willingness to recover it”.

As to the indicators of criminal cases of the Service expressed in figures, and the amounts recovered on the criminal cases, S. Khachatryan said: “material loss of 139 million AMD was actually recovered on the criminal cases currently being investigated in the Service, three hundred units real estate at the value of 14.685.000 USD, 221.000 EUR and 219.300.000 AMD was banned”.

As of November 27, 2018 the investigators of the Service have investigated 697 criminal cases, 570 of which were solved, including 86 criminal cases with regard to 155 persons were sent to the court with indictment, preliminary investigation on 127 cases is underway.

S. Khachatryan assured that in the near future the RA Special Investigation Service will record more achievements, “I believe the Service is accomplished with competent and honest persons devoted to their work and ready to perform the issues with honor”.

Mr. Artur Davtyan, the RA Prosecutor General congratulated the staff of the institution and noted that the RA Special Investigation Service managed to establish within respectively short period and perform its important role and the mission: “By evaluating the works performed within the previous period of time and pointing the future doings we can state that over this period the RA Special Investigation Service examined a number of complicated and public sounded cases, whereby the officers of the Service proved their professionalism, devotion to the business and motherland, so far as we know the difficulty of solving similar cases, the volume and complexity of works, - said RA Prosecutor General.

In his turn, Mr. A. Vanetsyan, the Head of the RA NSS, in his congratulation speech addressed to the officers of the RA Special Investigation Service mentioned that the cases solved by the structure, were expected, positive results have been recorded, he expressed his hope that a time will come when criminal cases will no more be on the first pages of the media. “We will do our best to establish legitimacy in our country”, the head of the NSS said.

Mr. H. Grigoryan, the Chairman of the RA Investigation Service also congratulated the officers of the RA Special Investigation Service with regard to the professional day, noted that during its professional activities the structure had an important role in the matter of strengthening legitimacy and law in the Republic of Armenia, fight against crime. “Today the RA Special Investigation Service goes on with performing its authorities with the high sense of responsibility, protecting the rights and freedoms of a human, strengthening democratic values, preventing corruption, - the Chairman of the Investigation Committee of RA said.

Mr. V. Osipyan the Head of RA Police and Mr. G. Balayan, the Deputy Minister of the RA Ministry of Defence, also congratulated officers of the RA Special Investigation Service.

Prime Minister of RA filed a petition to the President of Armenia for awarding Arshaluys Mianasyan Senior Investigator on PIC of the Head of RA Special Investigation Service, and Hrachya Musheghyan Senior Investigator on PIC of Department for investigation of crimes of general Character, with “Mkhitar Gosh” Medals for the contribution to the strengthening of law and legality. Vazgen Avetisyan, the deputy head of the department for Investigation of Torture and Crimes Against a Person, was awarded the prime minister's medal by the RA Prime Minister.

For the contribution to a decent and productive work, to the strengthening of legality and law, as well as on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the Service, the officers of the Service were awarded with medals, titles and letters of appreciation.